Palestinian businesses look east to China

By Wafa Amr

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - Faced with Israeli trade and travel restrictions, a stagnant economy and a flood of cheap imports from Asia, Palestinian businessmen are increasingly seeking their fortunes in China.

Demand for Chinese visas among business owners in the occupied West Bank is so high that the Chinese consul regularly visits the city of Hebron to stamp their passports and circumvent an Israeli ban that prevents them from travelling to the embassy in Tel Aviv.

"Everybody is doing business in China," Khaled Oseily, businessman and mayor of Hebron, told Reuters. "The Chinese consul comes to Hebron and on one day issued some 600 to 700 visas to Hebronite businessmen."

China began to open up its economy around 30 years ago, using cheap labour to produce and export huge volumes of inexpensive goods that have undercut local industries in many developing countries.

In Hebron, the largest Palestinian city famous for its leather and handmade ceramics, the wave of cheap Chinese goods was the last straw for businessmen already battling Israeli travel restrictions that inflate costs and hurt economic growth.

Israel says its network of checkpoints and roadblocks that carve up the West Bank is needed for security reasons. Palestinians say they amount to collective punishment.

On Sunday, Israel said it would remove about 50 "dirt roadblocks" in the West Bank and open a "permanent checkpoint" that obstructs the flow of travellers to the town of Jericho.

Western and Palestinian officials said Israel had pledged in the past to remove West Bank barriers but failed to do so.